By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Subtitled ‘A Song Apologetic’, ‘In the Person of Womankind’ is a poem by the poet and playwright, and contemporary of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson (1572-1637). As the title suggests, ‘In the Person of Womankind’ sees Jonson assuming the voice of all women, and addressing men. Before we offer some words of analysis, here’s the text of the poem:
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
1. Ben Jonson courted controversy on a number of occasions during his writing career.
Jonson (c. 1572-1637), the adopted son of a bricklayer, was originally apprenticed to his stepfather’s trade, before going off to enlist in the English army (he later claimed he had killed a Spanish champion in single combat). He started writing for the London theatre in his mid-twenties, and his first play to make a real splash was The Isle of Dogs, in 1597.
Ben Jonson’s touching elegy on his son, ‘child of his right hand’ – analysed by Dr Oliver Tearle
‘On My First Sonne’, Ben Jonson’s short poem for his son Benjamin, who died aged seven, is one of the most moving short elegies in the English language. Some analysis of this touching tribute to the poet’s young son may help to show why the poem means so much to modern readers. Jonson (1572-1637) was a contemporary of William Shakespeare and, like the Bard, wrote poems as well as the plays for which he is well-known. Here is his poem ‘On my First Son’, along with a short analysis of it.
On My First Sonne
Farewell, thou child of my right hand, and joy;
My sinne was too much hope of thee, lov’d boy,
Seven yeeres thou’wert lent to me, and I thee pay,
Exacted by thy fate, on the just day.
O, could I lose all father, now. For why
Will man lament the fate he should envÃe?
To have so soon scap’d worlds, and fleshes rage,
And, if no other miserie, yet age?
Father Christmas, we revealed yesterday, was J. R. R. Tolkien. But he had also been knocking about for several centuries before the author of The Hobbit wrote down his adventures. Indeed, the merry fellow first turns up in literature in the age of Shakespeare, as a character in a play – and he is the … Read more